BBC Our World - Pardon Me, Mr President (2015)

The War on Drugs in the United States led to a huge increase in America's prison population. For decades, hundreds of thousands of people convicted of even minor drug crimes received long jail terms. President Obama says this has been counter-productive, consigning generations of young people to jail. Under a new presidential clemency initiative thousands of drug offenders can apply for early release.

Our World speaks to some who have been freed and looks at the changing approach to tackling drug offences in the United States.

Technical Specs
Video Codec: x264 CABAC High@L4.1
Video Bitrate: CRF 20 (~1441Kbps)
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.94:1
Video Resolution: 1280x660
Frame Rate: 25 FPS
Audio Codec: AAC-LC
Audio Bitrate: Q=0.50 VBR 48KHz (~125Kbps)
Audio Channels: 2
Run-Time: 23 mins
Number of Parts: 1
Part Size: 260 MB
Source: HDTV
Encoded by: JungleBoy